Citi Is #1 On Feinberg's List Even Though They Sold Phibro Specifically To Avoid Something Like This

Feinberg's "Wall of Shame" list, more appropriately called his $hit list, apparently singles out Citigroup as the #1 worst offender of paying execs too much after receiving TARP.

The full list is below.

If Pandit isn't pissed, he should be. Last year, when Feinberg publicly fought Citi over a compensation agreement it had with trader Andy Hall, Citi had three choices.

Pay Hall $100 million like the company agreed to pay him in his profit-sharing agreement and face populist rage. Try to re-negociate Hall's contract and perhaps get taken to court. Sell Phibro.

So Citi was forced to sell Phibro, a profittable commodity trading unit that made a small but positive contribution to Citi's bottom line.

So Feinberg singling out Citi now is a slap in the face. It seemed to be only because Feinberg made public fuss about a legally-binding contract that Citi was forced to sell Phibro in the first place.

Feinberg seemed to agree that Citi could not break the contract and yet in the end, Citi was forced to part with one of its star traders, who was quickly snapped up by Occidental.

So basically, were it not for Feinberg, Citi might still own a profittable trading unit. And yet here is Feinberg, again, scolding Citi, seemingly just for the sake of appealing to populist uproar.

At his press conference today in Washington DC, Feinberg said that he will not be asking for clawbacks because he doesn't have the legal power to and because he doesn't think it's advisable to do so.

Yet at the same time, he made sure to also mention Citi as the worst offender.

Perhaps he hope to enlist Citi's help to push through he main purpose of his announcement today, that Feinberg wants these 17 offending firms to adopt a "Brake" provision which would essentially allow compensation contracts with employees to be broken in case of government monetary intervention.